


a family by any other name

by tambuli



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Class Swap AU, Gen, Mighty Nein as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29394849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tambuli/pseuds/tambuli
Summary: I’ve got a story about a party of adventurers called the Mighty Nein. It starts when a bunch of assholes meet in a tavern.Aw come on, I’ve heard that one a gazillion times before.You sure? Let me clarify.A cleric of the Storm Lord and a goblin wizard walk into a bar. They meet a human cleric, a tiefling barbarian, and a firbolg monk. Then a half-orc blood hunter and a human rogue invite them to see a circus.Okay. Yeah. I haven’t heard that one before.
Relationships: Nott | Veth Brenatto & Yasha
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	a family by any other name

Yasha wakes to the crash of thunder and the voice of the Storm Lord booming into her dreams.

**_GO._ **

“Go where?” she mumbles muzzily, but gets up anyway. This is one of the very rare times she’s had the money for an inn, with an actual bed and a warming pan, and while she’s used to the wilderness she does sometimes like civilization too. Whatever it is that the Storm Lord wants her to do, she hopes she can go back to sleep here after.

 ** _DOWN THE STREET TO YOUR LEFT,_** the Storm Lord says, and that’s quite a bit more helpful than he usually is. That’s kind of incredible. She takes up her great sword and hops out the window.

For a moment all she sees is the driving rain on the town streets. The wind that whirls the droplets around obscures her vision, and in very short order her hair is plastered to her face.

Then she sees a small, mobile creature running down the street, and a wide-open window of a storefront nearby. She squints, and the sign says **_P.E. BOB’S BOOKSHOP._**

“Am I supposed to apprehend them?” she asks the Storm Lord, and lightning flashes but does not give her a verbal answer.

So much for helpfulness.

The creature rushes down the street, nearly tripping and slipping on the slick cobblestones. Their overlarge cloak flaps around their ankles, and they seem to be hugging something close to their chest. When they see Yasha, they screech to a halt, and then wave awkwardly.

“Hi,” the creature says, kind of inanely. “Nice night out.”

“Oh, yes,” Yasha agrees warmly.

They stand in awkward silence, and then the creature blurts, “Well, I gotta be going, bye—” at the same moment that Yasha says, “I don’t mean to be rude, but did you steal from P.E. Bob?”

“Who’s P.E. Bob—hey! Of course I didn’t!”

“Oh,” Yasha says. “Only,” she points to the flapping window shutter of the bookshop, “you came from that direction and you’re acting really suspicious.”

“What a thing to say!” the creature says in their weird high-pitched voice. “I am an upstanding citizen of the Dwendalian Empire—”

The wind blows particularly viciously, and the hood of the cloak is thrown back. Yasha stares at the green skin and wide yellow eyes of a goblin woman.

“FUCK!” the goblin shrieks, and bolts.

At the same time, Yasha says, delighted, “A goblin! Where are you from?”

The goblin, now a good few feet away, screeches to a halt again. “What do you mean, from?” she demands. “From—here. From my clan. Obviously.”

“Oh,” Yasha says. “Only I thought. Well. Maybe. You might have been from Xhorhas.” She pauses, but something spurs her to finish the sentence: “Like me.”

“You’re from Xhorhas?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s…really far,” the goblin says. “What are you doing here in the Empire? Sightseeing?”

“Well, I—well.” Thunder crashes overhead. “I’m a wandering cleric.”

“A cleric!” The goblin has turned around fully, her yellow eyes almost luminous in the dark stormy night. “Of whom? Do you know lots of magic? What’s your specialty?”

“Um—well—I stick to fighting, mostly,” Yasha stammers. She clutches her great sword, not threateningly but just to have something to grip. This is the longest conversation she’s ever had with a living being in…a long time. “Kord. The Storm Lord. I mean, I worship him. I specialize in,” she waves her sword, and the goblin jerks back. “Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t mean to. I specialize in storms.”

“Oh,” the goblin says. “I thought clerics were supposed to be all healy and holy and shit.”

“I can heal, sometimes,” Yasha says, slightly indignant. “Storms are destructive, but they bring rain water and cleanse impurities!...Kind of.”

“—wait, did you say the Storm Lord? He’s illegal in the Empire! You can’t just go around saying you’re an illegal worshipper to any random person on the street!”

“He’s illegal? I didn’t know that,” Yasha mumbles. “Why would worship be illegal?”

The goblin shakes her head. “You’re gonna get hunted down.”

Yasha feels a smirk pass across her face. As if to back her up, lightning flashes again. “I’d like to see them try.”

“Oh. Okay then. That’s…cool.” The rain pelts down ever harder, and the goblin yanks her cloak over her head again. “Well, it’s been nice and all,” she says, “but it’s pouring buckets out here, and I gotta go. Nice meeting you.”

Thunder cracks threateningly.

“Wait!” Yasha says. “Um. I have an inn. Room. Inn room, I mean. Do you want to stay there until the rain lets up?”

The goblin looks warily at Yasha. “Why would you do that? I could murder you in your sleep.”

Yasha says again, “I’d like to see you try.”

“And why would you do that anyway? Invite a complete stranger into your room? Are _you_ going to murder me in _my_ sleep?”

“No! I wouldn’t! I mean, I could. If I wanted to. But I don’t. It’s just, it’s really stormy out and you’re soaked to the bone. You could warm up in my room and have a nap. I promise not to hurt you.”

The goblin wavers visibly.

“I have a warming pan,” Yasha adds.

That seems to do it. The goblin says, “All right. All right.”

“Okay okay okay,” Yasha says. “I’m Yasha, by the way.”

“I’m Nott.”

“…your name’s not Yasha? I didn’t expect it to be.”

“No! I mean, my name’s Nott. Nott the Brave.”

“Oh. Well. Nice to meet you, Nott the Brave.”

“Back to you, Yasha,” the goblin says, and then together they clamber back up the window to Yasha’s inn room.

**Author's Note:**

> i posted this lil snip snip because i figured you guys might like to see it. more to come. eventually


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